✧1I [am] the man [that] hath seen affliction by the rod of his wrath. ✧2He hath led me, and brought [me into] darkness, but not [into] light. ✧3Surely against me is he turned; he turneth his hand [against me] all the day. ✧4My flesh and my skin hath he made old; he hath broken my bones. ✧5He hath builded against me, and compassed [me] with gall and travail. ✧6He hath set me in dark places, as [they that be] dead of old. ✧7He hath hedged me about, that I cannot get out: he hath made my chain heavy. ✧8Also when I cry and shout, he shutteth out my prayer. ✧9He hath inclosed my ways with hewn stone, he hath made my paths crooked.
King James Version (KJV). King James Version (1769 text). Public domain outside the United Kingdom.
✧10He [was] unto me [as] a bear lying in wait, [and as] a lion in secret places.
✧11He hath turned aside my ways, and pulled me in pieces: he hath made me desolate.
✧12He hath bent his bow, and set me as a mark for the arrow.
✧13He hath caused the arrows of his quiver to enter into my reins.
✧14I was a derision to all my people; [and] their song all the day.
✧15He hath filled me with bitterness, he hath made me drunken with wormwood.
✧16He hath also broken my teeth with gravel stones, he hath covered me with ashes.
✧17And thou hast removed my soul far off from peace: I forgat prosperity.
✧18And I said, My strength and my hope is perished from the LORD:
✧19Remembering mine affliction and my misery, the wormwood and the gall.
✧20My soul hath [them] still in remembrance, and is humbled in me.
✧21This I recall to my mind, therefore have I hope.
✧22[It is of] the LORD’s mercies that we are not consumed, because his compassions fail not.
✧23[They are] new every morning: great [is] thy faithfulness.
✧24The LORD [is] my portion, saith my soul; therefore will I hope in him.
✧25The LORD [is] good unto them that wait for him, to the soul [that] seeketh him.
✧26[It is] good that [a man] should both hope and quietly wait for the salvation of the LORD.
✧27[It is] good for a man that he bear the yoke in his youth.
✧28He sitteth alone and keepeth silence, because he hath borne [it] upon him.
✧29He putteth his mouth in the dust; if so be there may be hope.
✧30He giveth [his] cheek to him that smiteth him: he is filled full with reproach.